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No. 3 Utah Defeats No. 2 BYU, 1-0, In Second Round Of 2006 MWC Softball Tournament Utes advance to Friday's semifinals.
May 11, 2006 LAS VEGAS - Final Boxscore in PDF Format
In game three of the Mountain West Softball Tournament, the No. 3 seed Utah (36-19) defeated the No. 2 seed BYU (40-19) 1-0 behind Ivette Hernandez' dramatic solo home run in the top seventh inning with one out. With the victory the Utes advance to the semifinals Friday, May 12 at 4:30 p.m. (PDT) against the winner of No. 6 New Mexico vs. the loser of Thursday night's No. 1 San Diego State/No. 4 UNLV game. The Cougars will play No. 5 Colorado State on Friday at 2 p.m.
The game was dominated by pitching with Utah's Meghan Dyer and BYU's Summer Tobias keeping both teams' offenses at bay.
"Unbelievable picthing," said Utah Interim Head Coach Kyle Magnusson. "That's what hurt us last weekend and today they came out and picked it up. They (Cannon, Dyer) threw two complete games and Hernandez came up with a big hit. It was an awesome win."
Dyer got the Utes out of a big jam in the bottom of the fifth inning, striking out Cougar second baseman Tracee Hoch with runners on second and third with two outs in the scoreless game. Dyer had a no-hitter through three innings and allowed just two hits in tossing the complete game. She struck out 12, including the side in the bottom of the seventh inning to close out the game.
Tobias (23-10) was just as effective through six innings for the Cougars, giving up only five hits to the Ute hitters heading into the pivotal seventh, when she gave up her sixth hit, the costly home run to Hernadez that gave Utah the victory.
"That was a good ball game," said BYU Head Coach Gordon Eakin. "Dyer threw a great game for them. We had our chances with our big hitters up at the plate to score two or three times in the game but she just shut us down. It was a hard fought game and we have to pick ourselves up and comeback tomorrow."
It was just the second home run of the season for Hernandez, who drilled her round tripper over the left-field fence to propel the Utes to the victory and into the semifinals. The home run was the only extra-base hit on the afternoon by both teams, as they combined for eight hits, seven of them singles. |
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